Rating: 4.5⭐️
Another new series and book by another new to me author, Abigail Owen’s. The first in Owen’s The Crucible series, The Games Gods Play is reimagining of Greek mythology and the Greek pantheon crossed with a Hunger Games along with a slow burn romance that ends on a cliffhanger.
I really enjoy how different Authors put their own vision into the recognizable Greek mythology to make the Gods and Goddesses as well as their respective relationships acquire a new histories and dynamics. Owen’s book does this while retaining some of the old foundations and essential elements key to the Greek pantheon.
I quickly found myself engaged by the premise and main characters. Primarily Lyra, a young woman cursed at birth and part of a Guild of Thieves. She’s one of the 13 human champions chosen by a Greek God or Goddess. They then represent each of them in The Crucible, a series of trials set by the same Gods, the winner of this will have unimaginable honors and their God will rule Olympus for the next 100 years.
That’s the barest of things. But the storyline is so great. Primarily due to the fact that the other main character is Hades, God of the Underworld, and Lyra already has an unfortunate relationship with the Gods.
The trials that the champions have to compete in are well crafted, terrifying, and make for a fast paced storyline, full of exactly what you might expect, characters that don’t survive, bloodshed, and heartbreak.
As Lyra is navigating the intricacies of Olympian pantheon dynamics, and that of her fellow champions, there’s a slow burn romance trying to happen with Hades.
Owen’s has some terrific support characters including Charon and Cerebus the three headed dog of Hades.
I could wish that more of the other characters were better layered or the Gods/Goddesses had been more defined, but it’s a wild ride with a good many mysteries involved and a new twist on the Hades/Persephone relationship mythology that I loved.
Actually, it’s more Percy Jackson than Hunger Games. I believe it is fine for young adults as it is for adults. Very engaging , well written, and highly entertaining. I’m onto the next book when it’s available to see what happens!
A definite recommendation! What a wonderful book.
Cover art and design by Bree Archer and LJ Anderson, Mayhem Cover Creations
The Crucible series:
The Games Gods Play #1
The Things Gods Break #2 – September 25,2025
Buy Link
The Games Gods Play (The Crucible Book 1)
Blurb
The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.
Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.
The worst god. Hades.
For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.
So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?
I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?
Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.
- Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books (September 3, 2024)
- Publication date: September 3, 2024
- Language: English
- Print length: 645 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 